


All the Best Thieves Have Daddy Issues

by pinn



Category: Ocean's Eleven (2001)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-20
Updated: 2010-01-20
Packaged: 2017-10-06 12:42:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/53780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pinn/pseuds/pinn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rusty meets Bobby Caldwell.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All the Best Thieves Have Daddy Issues

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Shosh and Mouse for doing beta. Originally written for [Take the House](takethehouse.livejournal.com) challenge.

Rusty first met Bobby Caldwell in a dive bar in New York. After spending the weekend with Tess and Danny in New Jersey, Rusty was exhausted from all the relaxing. He had been looking to unwinding, grabbing a drink at an old haunt before catching the red-eye back to L.A.

He was sitting at the bar, idly watching the game and wondering when the Yankees were going to bottom out while trying to calculate interest rate he needed on the loan from the bank in order to not lose everything if the hotel failed, when someone sat down next to him. Given that the entire bar was empty, Rusty figured the guy must have had a reason for choosing the stool next to him. He looked over briefly, the guy was too well-kept and too old to be one of Benedict's goons, but something about him seemed familiar.

The man pretended to watch the game for a few minutes, grunting whenever the Yankees made an error, and cheering when they got a hit. "What are you drinking?"

Rusty had turned toward the man and raised his eyebrow. "I'm not looking to get picked up."

"I know you're not, asshole."

"Then a scotch on the rocks." It's Danny's drink of choice; Rusty only prefers it when he's in a slow mood.

The man ordered and turned back around to Rusty. "Bobby Caldwell."

Rusty nodded into his glass, "Rusty Ryan."

"Yeah," said Linus' father. "I know."

Rusty's smile could almost be considered friendly. "Thought you might."

Bobby tapped his hands on the bar, first the left, then the right then his right fingers began tapping out a drumbeat obsessively.

After a few minutes of silence, Rusty stood up from his stool. He leaned over Bobby and grabbed some pretzels from the bowl on the bar. "As much fun as it's been, Bobby, it's time for me to leave."

When he got to Chicago, a week later, Rusty told Linus about the meeting. Linus was quiet for a few minutes, not turning around from the kitchen sink where he had been obsessively washing his hands.

"Linus?"

He twisted the faucet off, hard, and faced Rusty. "It's fine. I'm fine. He didn't say anything about me?" He stared at Rusty, tapping his fingers on the counter in some weird rhythm.

"Nope."

"Okay. So, what are we doing tonight?"

"Movies? Tess was raving about some foreign film last week. It sounds pretty boring so it's right up your alley."

Later, after they'd gone to bed and Linus had done things with his tongue that made Rusty drop his guard for more than five seconds, Rusty looked down at Linus, passed out next to him. When Linus is disappointed, his face drops for a brief second and then he bottles it all up and pushes it down. Rusty suspects that it's a byproduct of growing up as Bobby Caldwell's son. Bobby Caldwell doesn't seem like the type of man to allow anyone, especially his children, to get visibly upset.

 

* * *

 

The second time Rusty meets Bobby Caldwell, they are in a corner in the bar of Rusty's hotel. Rusty's grown tired of trying to calculate interest rates and so he made some calls and dropped some hints to a few people.

"Rusty."

"Bobby."

Bobby sits down at the table and Rusty pours him a glass from the bottle of red he'd dug out of his cellar. Bobby takes a sip before speaking. "Where's Linus?"

Linus had asked Rusty to not disclose his whereabouts to his father, specifically the fact that he's currently living in Rusty's suite. "I don't know."

"Bullshit. He's upstairs in your suite. That's the thing about kids, they all think they're so smart and that they can pull a fast one on their parents. But I'm sure you did that with your parents."

"My parents weren't around much," Rusty replies evenly.

"Well, you would have if they had stuck around." Bobby nods his head. "I knew about Linus's first boyfriend before Linus did." Bobby leans in close to the table before speaking again. "Don't ever have kids, Rusty, they'll break your heart."

"Because they'll wind up living with a con man in his hotel suite?" Generally, Rusty's pretty good at staying cool, but sometimes his façade cracks. The fact that it only happens around people named Caldwell hasn't escaped his attention.

"No," Bobby smiles, "because they'll come home one day, look at you like they've never seen you before, and stop talking to you. They'll want the one thing you don't even know how to give them and they'll never forgive you for not giving it."

When Bobby Caldwell is disappointed, it doesn't flash across his face, Rusty notes. His voice drops an octave and he leans in, close to the table.

"Maybe they don't want anything all that complicated," said Rusty. "Kids, especially smart kids, know what they can get. It just pisses them off when they see something that they know is theirs deliberately kept away from them." He wasn't interfering in Linus's life, Rusty told himself, he was doing it so he could stop feel guilty about taking this job.

Bobby Caldwell is staring at him with surprised respect. It's twice the look he'd get from Linus, who has always respected him, but has never been surprised by him. In retrospect, that was probably what drew Rusty to him in the first place. He's stayed for entirely different reasons.

"Maybe you're right." Bobby finally says.

"Maybe. Anything's possible, isn't it? Now, about the entry point. I think it's best if we go in with a Side-Winding Charlie. Anything more than that is overkill."

Two hours later, Bobby finished his third glass of wine and stood, his chair scraping along the wooden floor. "This is looking good. I'll have my guys get in touch with you about the Empty Barrel of Milk."

"I'll call the Empress after I hear from them," says Rusty.

"It'll be soon." Bobby looks down and shakes his head. "I'd tell you to keep an eye on him, but it wouldn't make a difference, would it, since you already do."

Rusty shrugs. "He does a pretty good job of taking care of himself."

"Yeah." Bobby nods. "Well, tell him to call his mother, at least. She misses him."

Rusty heads back up to the room. The TV clicks on as he opens the door, and Rusty smiles to himself. Linus is in the living room, staring at the TV like it's the only thing he's done for the past three hours. "Call your father," Rusty says, kissing his forehead, making his way down to Linus' mouth with more kisses. "He misses you."


End file.
